I agree the European Union needs to step up to the plate. I have pretty much lost respect for Europeans over this and other things they infight about. A bunch of greedy grubbing children. I think it must be no different than 100 years ago.

Yesterday in my repair shop

Wait, there are still computer repair people?

Say, if I buy a new video card, you think you could come over to my house and install it before Assassin's Creed Unity comes out? There's $50 in it for you. I live in Chicago.

3 secs should be just enough to click the "more information" link.

I'm pretty sure that unless he's suffering from the DTs, it won't take him 3 seconds to click a link.

Most won't even care about that, they just install without reviewing.

I doubt it's much different in other platforms. Mac OS or Android or Linux. When there is an update, most people don't have the time to carefully go over what it's doing. Nor should they.

When the plumber comes to my house, as he did yesterday, all I care about is that the hot water is coming and the toilets flush. I don't crawl under the sink to see if he properly greased the pipes or whatever the hell it is plumbers do.

I have met people who work for Microsoft and Apple and they are neat and earnest and are by all appearances proper and trustworthy citizens. I've also met people who contribute to open source OSs. They look like the guy who stands on the on-ramp with a sign asking for change. A little bit dangerous with greasy hair and a a psychotic glimmer in the eyes.

I'm kidding of course, and just tweaking people who use Linux (like myself), but as Eclipse (played by Frank McRae) said to Sylvester Stallone upon his imprisonment in the classic American film Lock Up, "You gotta trust somebody. Let me hip you to the joint."

some might find it more convenient than dealing with dodgy/illegal web sites, poor quality cracks, possible malware, and other annoyances.

The top torrent sites are a lot less "dodgy" than uplay (and have better uptime), and the best of the scene outfits put out cracked products that are often more stable than the companies that produce the games.

How many times have we heard about games that had huge problems because of their DRM that were fixed in the torrent?

There may be arguments for using Valve/Origin/Uplay etc over torrents but the ones you mention aren't really among them.

The health care system in Canada needs fixing. Many can't get a family physician because there aren't enough and have to go to clinics. Having no doctor because you can't afford one is no worse than not having one because they aren't there. Having primary care physician is the best way to stay healthy. Specialist wait times are crazy and you must have a referral.

The system is going downhill, but because it was the best 50 years ago, people here think it still is. If you talk change the radical parrots all squawk 'no American style health care!' as if that is the only other system out there. And then they are so satisfied with themselves thinking they have preserved a great system. Meanwhile they are mostly the ones who do have family physicians and are afraid of change, even for the better because they don't want to lose their doctor (which they wouldn't). Canada's health care system ranked 30th in 2000 according to the WHO. America 36th.But most Americans at least know it could be better, while too many Canadians don't think the same way about our system. Attitude is slowly changing, but too slowly.

He is not. He's a douchebag.

That's the party in power BTW.

France had more tanks, including heavy tanks than Germany at the start of the war. A couple of countries could have tag teamed Germany before they attacked. But the head in the sand attitude stopped them. I will grant that that same attitude kept their tactical thinking behind the times too. But an early concerted effort would likely have ended der fuhrer's plans.

Is that when you buy US Treasuries, you don't actually get anything. They don't send you a magic stone with powers to call in a debt. What happens is there's an entry made in a computer database, a computer that is in the US.

What this means is that the US ultimately has control over the repayment. Now both legally and practically the US is obligated to repay their securities per the agreed upon terms. However, that goes out the window in the case of a war. US law allows the freezing/seizing of assets, and other countries would have no problem with the idea.

So a situation could arise where the US simply declares China's holdings to be invalid and null. So long as the other bond holders are ok with this, and the (US) courts see it as legal, then China suddenly loses over a trillion dollars in investments. They can't just run off and sell them or something, they have nothing to sell. This would tank the renminbi and really screw China over. It actually could have a positive impact on the US, particularly if the other bond holders saw this as a positive (because the US owes less) and trusted that it wouldn't happen to them.

A country selling treasury notes isn't like taking out a loan with a loan shark. It works really different. US securities are:

1) Denominated in US dollars, and thus only worth something if the dollar is.

2) Payable on defined schedules, with no ability to "call in" the loan early.

3) Nothing more than promises to pay from the US government, and thus only valid if the government decides they will pay.

Russian lead, supplied and fomented separatists who do not identify with Ukraine can hardly be called Ukrainians. If you were to ask the perpetrators, they would call themselves Russian .

Another Russian propaganda sock puppet. Poroshenko sent troops against Russian agents provocateurs using military weapons and insurgents to try to split his country.

A little truth mixed in with bullshit doesn't make it any more palatable.

Thank you Russian ministry of propaganda.

Thank you Neville Chamberlain.